CBRE Group

CB Richard Ellis exists to serve as an advisor to its clients, helping them seize market opportunities through seamless working relationships and a thorough understanding of their business objectives. Our professionals are motivated not by simply closing transactions, but by working collaboratively with clients to foresee what lies ahead and helping chart which course to follow. We seek to form long-term relationships with our clients--where their success becomes our success. Through CB Richard Ellis, our clients gain the global reach of the world's largest real estate services firm, combined with the in-depth local market knowledge of our professionals. Whether a client has just one property or a portfolio of multi-national locations, the company's offerings can meet individual client needs. No matter how complex that need may be, CB Richard Ellis provides a custom mix of products and services that deliver significant, measurable returns. Coldwell Banker acquires New York commercial real estate firm Sutton & Towne, Inc. CB Commercial acquires L.J. Melody & Company mortgage bankers; the company goes public. CB Commercial acquires REI Ltd. and becomes CB Richard Ellis (CBRE); Hiller Parker also is acquired. Japanese operations are merged with Ikoma Corporation; Sweden's Profit Group and Chile's LirAntunez Propiedades are acquired. In August 1906, with San Francisco only beginning to recover from the devastating earthquake earlier that year, Colbert Coldwell, then 23, and Albert Nion Tucker, 36, left their jobs with the real estate firm of Davidson & Leigh. With the backing of John Conant Lynch, an attorney and socially prominent former California legislator, they formed their own firm, Tucker, Lynch & Coldwell. Lynch was president and Coldwell was vice-president. Tucker, the oldest of the partners at 55, was the least involved in running the business and served as secretary. From the start, Coldwell insisted that the firm operate solely as a brokerage, acting as the agent for buyers and sellers rather than speculating in real estate itself. That policy also was extended to the firm's partners and salesmen, who were not permitted to buy any real estate except for their personal homes. The firm quickly gained a reputation for honesty and attracted wealthy clients who were grateful for a broker who was not competing with them for the best deals. By 1912, much of San Francisco had been rebuilt and the city was again flourishing, as was the firm of Tucker, Lynch & Coldwell. Tucker and Lynch decided to reduce their interest and essentially withdrew from the firm, leaving Coldwell to operate the business as a sole proprietorship. The following year, Benjamin Arthur Banker left the prominent San Francisco real estate firm of M.B. McGerry to become a salesman for Coldwell. In 1914, Banker became a partner in the firm. War broke out in Europe the following year. When the United States entered the conflict in 1917, the firm, still known as Tucker, Lynch & Coldwell, embarked on its first non-real estate business venture--growing rice for the war effort on land it purchased in the Sacramento Valley. The rice farm was a failure, and in 1919, the partners, which then included Albert E. Kerns, vowed never again to invest in a venture outside real estate. The firm also briefly changed its name to Coldwell, Kern & Banker. However, by 1920, Kern had resigned and was replaced by Bruce Cornwall, the son of a respected San Francisco industrialist and financier, Pierre Barlow Cornwall. The younger Cornwall, then 43, was never active in the business, but Coldwell realized the value of having his name associated with the firm, which became known as Coldwell, Cornwall & Banker. In 1922, Marshall Hale, a San Francisco businessman, purchased the Spring Arcade Building in Los Angeles. He asked Coldwell, Cornwell & Banker to manage the property and invited the firm to open an office in the building. According to Jo Ann Levy in Behind the Western S